The Founding of INFORMS: A Decision Analysis Perspective

L. Robin Keller and Craig W. Kirkwood
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L. Robin Keller: University of California, Irvine, California
Craig W. Kirkwood: Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

Operations Research, 1999, vol. 47, issue 1, 16-28

Abstract: We provide a decision analysis perspective on the decision making process leading to the merger of The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS) and the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) to form the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Throughout the merger negotiation era from 1989 until the merger in 1995, discussion regarding a possible merger was framed in an objectives-oriented manner characteristic of decision analysis methods. In addition, as ORSA and TIMS officers, we applied multiobjective decision analysis and financial analysis methods in portions of the planning and negotiation process leading to the formation of INFORMS. The merger process serves as an instructive case study of the uses and limitations of formal decision analysis methods in strategy formulation and implementation.

Keywords: decision analysis; applications; merger of ORSA and TIMS; utility/preference; multiattribute; evaluating INFORMS merger options; professional; OR/MS policy/standards; formation of INFORMS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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